Emotion Sickness
by DanniB
Summary: Riley gets sick and the emotions do their best to handle the situation. But as the night wears on unexpected surprises come that challenge them, especially Fear.
1. Chapter 1

**Emotion Sickness**

 **An Inside/Out Fanfiction**

 **[Author's note: The following characters are owned by Disney/Pixar and their creators.**

 **This story evolved from an experimental idea about how the emotions deal with Riley being sick that got WAY out of hand. Please enjoy.]**

 **/**

"Riley, sweetheart, you've barely touched your dinner. Is everything okay?" Mom asked, noticing the mound of Tuna Noodle Casserole that her daughter had been pushing around her plate for the last twenty minutes.

The twelve-year-old half heartedly looked up with tired eyes. For a split second she looked like she was annoyed by the question, but she shifted to a gloomy expression and responded,

"Guess I'm not that hungry right now."

"Good catch Sadness." Joy congratulated the smaller, blue emotion before turning to her green co-worker with an apologetic face. "Sorry Disgust, but we don't want Mom thinking we don't like her cooking."

Disgust let out an apathetic sigh. She really didn't care what Mom thought. She was more concerned with the fact that since that afternoon, Riley had developed an upset stomach and she had been dealing with the bloating and discomfort for far longer than was her limit. And while she knew the other emotions weren't feeling fresh as daisies either, it was her sour mood that had been influencing Riley for the majority of the day since.

"Whatever. Ugh… I hate being sick." She groaned. The others moaned in agreement.

Joy grimaced. She really disliked it when Riley got sick, especially since it meant her fellow emotions were under the weather too. Today seemed especially hard on them. Anger was a bit grumpier, and was quick to snap at what would normally be minor annoyances. Fear was fussing over every ache and pain, constantly checking gauges and meters on the console. Sadness had set a cloud of gloom over the whole of Headquarters, so while she hadn't made Riley cry, she had slowed the girl's pace to a fraction of her normal zip with downhearted self pity. Joy hadn't stopped her; she had felt the drop in her own normally unstoppable drive to spread cheer. Not that she hadn't tried to keep everyone's spirits up anyway.

"Come on guys, it's not like we haven't been sick before. We'll get through this. So, how about a smile?" She encouraged, only to be met with frowning, sickly gazes.

"Joy, we're bloated and nauseous. We are not doing 'perky'." Disgust protested.

"Seconded." Anger agreed.

Joy sighed; she only had pity for Disgust. While they could all feel Riley's pains to varying degrees, she was the most sensitive to their girl's physical sensations. Any taste, smell, or feeling against the skin, or in this case, within the body, Disgust felt as if it were happening to her own directly. All so she could pin-point causes of irritation and discomfort. A fitting talent for the emotion whose job it was to detect poison or avoid an itchy, ugly wool sweater gifted by Grandma.

"Are you feeling alright, Honey?" They heard Mom ask over the monitor.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about me." Riley muttered, dodging her mother's hand when it reached up to feel her forehead.

Everyone turned to Disgust who had triggered that unexpected response. They were stupefied that she, who was experiencing the brunt of all this, would actively turn away help.

"What?" She snapped at them.

"Sorry, we just thought that you'd want us to get some attention since you're the most um… uncomfortable." Joy pointed out.

"We're not five years old with the sniffles, Joy." She explained. "We don't need mom treating us like a baby because we have a tummy ache."

"But I like it when Mom cares for us when we're sick." Sadness frowned. "Like when we have the chills and she wraps us up all warm in a blanket."

Fear nodded in agreement, a content expression on his face. "You're singing my tune, Sadness."

"Mom won't be there to wrap us up all snuggly forever you know." Disgust pointed out.

"I know," Sadness pouted, "and that's sad…"

Joy gave this some thought.

"Well we _are_ trying to be more independent, and it is just a little stomach ache. We don't need to worry Mom over it." She settled.

"Are you sure?" Fear asked, his axon curling tight. "What if this is something bad? What if we have INTESTINAL PARACITES?!"

"It's probably that nasty burrito from the school cafeteria we ate today." Anger dismissed Fear's worries with a grunt. "You know those lunch ladies can't cook anything right."

"Do not recall that memory or I'll spew." Disgust warned, so done with the topic of food.

"Hey, you know what we need? A good night's sleep." Suggested Joy, trying to brighten the mood. "We'll go to bed early and I'm sure we'll feel better by the morning."

"I'm always a champion for sleep." Sadness agreed, nudging the appropriate levers.

"I'm going to call it a night." Said Riley, leaving her chair with a sluggish demeanor.

Mom paused with a look of concern. "So early?"

"Yeah, I'm…just tired, I guess."

Mom frowned at her daughter's unsure words, but nodded.

"Well, let me know if you need anything. And your father should be home soon."

"I don't like lying to Mom about this." Fear trembled.

"It's not lying. We _are_ tired." Disgust justified while rolling her eyes at him.

"I don't like keeping this from Mom either." He snarked back.

"Guys, I know we're not feeling our best right now, but that's when we should be working together the most." Joy stepped in, defusing the oncoming argument. She searched for something to change the subject. "Oh, does anyone remember what Mom gave us last time we had an upset stomach?"

"Uh, ooh! That chalky tasting pink stuff!" Fear recalled the memory of Mom administering the thick, oddly colored liquid in a little plastic cup."

"Good call, Fear. It's under the sink in the bathroom, right?" Joy summoned up a new memory of the last time they had searched the bathroom cupboards for something.

"Wait, are you proposing we self-medicate?" he asked nervously.

"Yes, please." Disgust chimed in. "That stuff tastes nasty, but if it makes us feel better, I'm all for it."

"Seconded." Anger again agreed.

Fear glanced about for someone to support his reservations. He only received a pitying look and a shrug from Sadness. He sighed. "Fine, but I'm reading the whole label first."

After finding the bottle and giving Fear time to read, and re-read all of the directions, warnings, and even the ingredients (despite Disgust reminding him that none of them knew what those chemicals were or did.) After finding to his satisfaction that Riley was old enough for a full dose. After downing the medicine with a gag.

"Dog food has more cherry flavor than this crap!" Anger had snarled.

After brushing her teeth and getting into her pajamas, Riley settled into bed and everyone began to feel a bit of relief.

"Good job everyone." Joy smiled. "You guys get a good night's sleep so we can have a great morning."

Her thumbs up and sunny smile went mostly ignored as the others headed up to the second floor bedroom. She held out the hope that the medicine would kick in soon and everyone would be in a much better mood tomorrow. In the meantime, she'd take Dream Duty and ensure Riley at least had a good night.

Turning back to the console she was surprised to see Fear was still present, examining the device's indicators and meters intently.

"Fear, go to bed. Riley will be fine tonight, I got this. She'll have good dreams and wake up feeling great, you'll see."

His eyes didn't leave the gauges.

"I don't know…" he sighed, dragging his hand over his face. "The Pain Meter looks like its still climbing."

Joy glanced over the meter he had indicated. It was a small gauge with a half circle, colored in portions that signaled the amount of physical pain Riley was experiencing. The lowest setting after 0 was White, which was for minor irritations. The sort of things Disgust picked up on and nipped in the bud before anyone thought to even look at it. Yellow, the color the meter was hovering over now, was for slightly more concerning discomforts; beestings, sunburns, headaches, scraped knees, nothing that a few tears from Sadness, a kiss from Mom, or an aspirin couldn't handle. The next colors, Orange and Red, hadn't ever been reached outside of a quick spike before falling down to Yellow or White.

"I'm sure it'll go down again now that Riley's asleep." She assured him.

He wanted to believe her, but doubt was lingering strong. It hadn't been much, but the needle had been rising slowly during the day and while it looked stable now, there was no guarantee things wouldn't change for the worst. He didn't want to leave the console, even as Joy placed her arm around him and lead him away. His body moved, but his mind was still focused on that gauge.

"You'll keep an eye on it, right?" he asked. She could feel him start to tug away, the look in his eyes telling her his desire to watch the console all night was powerful.

Riley was in a shallow sleep right now and she knew that if he took control, she'd never relax enough to fall into the deep sleep she needed to heal.

"Sure, I will, I will. Trust me." She insisted, looking at him right in the eyes with the most reassuring smile she could muster.

He drooped, looking slightly guilty from his nagging negativity.

"Okay." He allowed himself a sigh to calm down. "Good night, Joy." He smiled briefly, then made his way to the sleeping quarters, deliberately slowing his breathing to push away the remaining worry that was so stubbornly sticking to the back of his mind.

Once he was out of sight, Joy resumed her place by the console. REM sleep had begun, the memories were on their way to Long-Term, and Dream Productions was sending up their feature for the evening. She gave the Pain Meter a glance: still perfectly motionless in the middle of the yellow zone. She shook her head. Fear was probably just working himself up because this was the first time they had handled Riley being sick without Mom or Dad's help. It had been a little stressful, yes, but she was proud that they had pulled it off and it would give Riley they confidence that she could take care of herself in the future.

Overall, despite the obvious discomfort they were all still in, the day had ended on a good note if Joy had anything to say about it. She placed a hand on the console and it took on her golden glow.

"You'll feel better Riley, I know it."

/

The night rolled on, but Fear hadn't gotten any true rest. After laying awake for an indeterminate amount of time with his worries churning through his head, he managed to doze off for maybe an hour or so before waking with a sudden urgency. His heart was pounding, but there was no evident cause for this overwhelming sense of panic.

He looked around; everyone else was sleeping, thought not very well. Disgust was tossing and turning, letting out soft moans, her blankets disheveled and tangled around her body. Sadness was hugging her pillow, quietly sobbing into it. Not an abnormal sight at night, but he noted she was clutching that pillow to herself awfully tight. At the far end of the shared sleeping area he could hear Anger snoring, but it wasn't the even rhythmic snorts he was used to.

Something was wrong, very wrong. He couldn't tell why just yet, but he was certain of it on a deep, instinctual level. He hugged his knees and curled into a ball. The worry inside him felt like a pit in his stomach, growing into a stabbing pain. A shutter ran through him and he struggled to slow his breathing. All the while a thought entered his mind and it quickly bloomed into an obsessive urge: _Get to the console, RIGHT NOW!_

[To Be continued]


	2. Chapter 2

Dream Duty had been weird, yet still quite boring. Riley has dreaming about running… or maybe she was flying, Joy couldn't tell, but she was moving down a stretch of highway that seemed to repeat endlessly past the same five things. And after seeing the same cowboy riding a dinosaur for the hundredth time, the usually energetic emotion found herself struggling not to doze off. Her head kept drooping and her eyelids felt heavy. There seemed to be a warmth that was increasing ever so steadily in the room and it felt like a haze washing over her.

"Joy?" A voice timidly called out.

Startled back to alertness, she turned to see Fear standing at the end of the ramp that connected the main room to the off-duty area.

She straightened herself up, only to feel an uncomfortable cramp in her lower belly. She shrugged it off and approached him and he made his way closer.

"Fear, what are you doing up?"

"Something's wrong!" He exclaimed, grabbing her arms. "I, I don't know what, but I know something's wrong. I can _feel_ it!" He was breathing heavily, his eyes wide and wild. He winced and he moved his arms to hug his middle. She slid her hands onto his shoulders, trying to calm him. He was shivering.

"What do you mean? There's nothing happening. And Riley's not even having a nightmare, see?" She pointed to the screen, now the dream Riley was passing a dancing robot and a llama wearing a sombrero staring blankly at its audience. "There's nothing scary…although, that llama is kinda freaky if you stare at it for too long."

He sprinted past her to the front of the room, focused, not on the screen, but on the console.

"Joy, you said you'd keep an eye on the gauge. It's in the Orange!"

She blinked in disbelief. "What? No, it was still yellow when I last checked." Concern and confusion washed through her and she joined him at the console.

Indeed the needle was floating just past the line that divided the yellow zone from the orange where moderate pain became severe pain. She frowned. When _was_ the last time she had checked it? Fifteen minutes ago? Thirty? An hour? Had she actually dozed off at some point?

"Oh, I'm sorry Fear." She apologized, heart weak with guilt. "And I promised you…"

Fortunately, he was too occupied with panicking to give her any grief about it.

"What do we do? What do we do!?" he muttered, head in his hands. His mind turned over hundreds of options, but only one kept floating to the surface as the most practical. He turned to her, "We need Mom and Dad."

Joy nodded, though she frowned at the idea that the plan to make Riley more independent was backfiring so spectacularly. "Wake her up."

He hit the button and Riley was pulled from her slumber. Without the veil of sleep to numb her, she was greeted with a surge of pain through her stomach that made her cry out. Fear watched tensely as the needle jumped higher into the Orange zone.

"This is it Joy. It's The End. We're _dying_." He sprawled himself out over the console, lighting it up with his violet glow and let gravity drag him off and onto the floor where he huddled into the fetal position.

Joy kneeled down to him, trying her best to mask her dread with hopefulness. "We're not dead yet. You get Mom and Dad and I'll get the others."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mr. Andersen had arrived home an hour ago and was filling in his wife with the events of his day over a plate of leftover casserole when the two adults spotted a small shadow lingering in the doorframe of the kitchen.

"Mom, Dad…"

Riley entered the light on the kitchen, her face pale and frightened.

"Riley, is everything alright?" her mother asked, hurrying over.

"My stomach really hurts." She grimaced.

Mom placed her hand on Riley's head and gasped. "You're burning up!"

I'll get the thermometer." Dad jumped out of his chair and rushed to retrieve it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Guy's we have a situation!" Joy barged into the sleeping quarters where her groggy teammates were slowly crawling out of their beds.

"Don't wanna move…feel too gross." Disgust groaned, her hair disheveled in an unflattering mess.

"Riley needs us." Joy explained, waving a hand overhead to indicate that the lights were on and their girl was awake and in need of her emotional support team. "She's really sick now." She helped pull Disgust to her feet and moved on to heft sadness off of her mattress.

"My tummy hurts and I just wanna curl up and cry." The blue girl moaned. Joy put all her effort into pushing her up without dropping her on the floor.

"Mom and Dad are checking on her right now. We have to be ready for everything, which means all of us being there for her."

She thanked her lucky stars that Sadness remained upright and made an attempt to follow Disgust down the ramp, even if she did drag her pillow with her.

"Anger," Joy turned to the square lump in the last bed. "Anger, wake up." He grunted at her, trying to cling to sleep. She shook him, feeling the heat off his particles, which she feared had nothing to do with his fiery temper. "Come on big boy, its go time!" She insisted, now pushing him like she had with Sadness. Unfortunately, she pushed a bit too hard and he tumbled right off the bed.

A split second later he was up with a snarl, yanking his blanket off, looking ready to trash the person responsible for dumping him onto the floor. The only thing stopping his rampage was the sudden presence of pain in his guts.

"Who punched us!?" He demanded.

"Nobody punched us." She sighed with dismay, "Riley's gotten worse."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mom pulled the beeping thermometer from Riley's mouth. She read the results with worry. "A hundred and one."

"A hundred and one?" Fear repeated. "Oh, that's bad…" He pulled on the collar of his shirt and wiped some sweat off his face with his sleeve, not sure if the perspiration was being caused by his nervousness or Riley's fever.

"I don't like this." He heard Mom say as she turned to Dad. "We're taking her to the hospital."

"HOSPITAL!?" It was enough to send Fear reeling. Hospitals meant scary doctors and weird scanning machines, cold metal probing instruments, scalpels and NEEDLES! He started feeling faint, but he was brought back to reality by a smaller hand touching his.

"Do you want to hug my pillow?" Sadness offered. "I think you need it more than me."

He wordlessly took the slightly damp pillow from her and clutched it to his chest.

"The hospital? Really? Where we'll be surrounded by _sick_ people?" Disgust cringed.

"Riley's a sick person." Sadness pointed out.

"If we're gonna be dragged to the hospital, we deserve to get ice cream once this is all over." They turned to see Anger and Joy joining them from behind. The small red emotion looking frustrated.

"Hey, let's think of this as an adventure." Joy suggested. "We go to the hospital, a doctor checks Riley out, she gets something more effective than Chalky Pink Stuff and POOF we're all better."

Even if any of the emotions had disapproved the hospital plan, they'd have no say in the matter once Mom stuck Riley in the car and Dad drove them all down town.

Now they sat in the emergency waiting room. Riley lay across a few chairs with her head in Mom's lap, Mom stroking her hair and Dad sitting next to her, tapping his foot listlessly while staring at the clock. It felt like they had been waiting forever.

"That guy with the hacking cough had better not get any closer to us." Disgust eyed the sickly fellow pacing nearby with disdain.

"This place is practically empty. What's taking them so long to call us?" Anger hissed, banging his fist on the console.

Fear jumped at the sound. He had been nervous with anticipation since they had arrived there. He occasionally poked at the buttons on the console, just to feel like he was doing something, even if he wasn't sure what that something was. Mostly he pulled on and squeezed the pillow in his hands, eyeing the pain meter, which was still thankfully on orange.

"I'm going to talk to the nurse again." Dad stood up, but Mom grabbed his sleeve.

"You already talked to her twice." She protested. "She told us we just have to wait until a doctor's available."

"It's eleven at night and we've been waiting for an hour, how can there be no doctors available?"

"Oh, now they're fighting." Sadness moped. "This is our fault."

"They're just worried about Riley, that's all." Joy tried to put a positive spin on the situation.

"Well, I'm on Dad's side." Anger growled. "Our girl's in pain, somebody do something!"

"Oh…Oh god!" Disgust blanched, slapping a hand over her mouth while punching some buttons with the other.

Riley sat up, distracted from her growing impatience by a quickly rising nausea.

"Honey, are you okay?" Mom asked. Riley didn't answer, but ran headlong into the public restroom and tossed her cookies.

The other emotions all backed away from the console as it glowed bright green. Not much good they could do Riley right now, that and they preferred not getting vomit on their shoes (or in Joy's case, feet.)

"That…was so awful." Disgust moaned, kneeling over the puddle she had left on the floor.

"Um…bright side though, we didn't barf on Mom's lap." Joy tried to stay optimistic.

"Nobody talk to me until the taste of bile is out of my mouth." Disgust insisted with her last bit of sass, laying her head on the console.

On the monitor they could all see Mom checking in, holding Riley's hair out of the way in case she vomited again.

"Uh, is somebody going to uh…um, you know, clean that up?" Fear hesitantly asked, eyeing the puddle still on the floor. Nobody answered, they were all busy watching, listening and hoping for the nurse to finally call Riley's name. He sighed, "I'll get the mop. Am I seriously the only one concerned about slipping hazards around here?"

Actually, he was thankful to have a distraction, even if it was handling a mess Disgust had made that he knew she would have talked him into cleaning up for her anyway. All this uncertainty surrounding the events of the evening was eating at his nerves, flooding his mind with all the possible things that could be making Riley sick. Cancerous tumors, internal bleeding, implants left by alien abductions, all so horrible and all so overwhelming. Once a doctor could see her, he was sure he'd be able to relax and think clearly again. So while Mom helped Riley back to a waiting room chair, he mopped.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Andersen, Riley" A nurse called out a few minutes later.

"It's about time." Both Anger and Dad grumbled simultaneously.

The nurse escorted the family into the triage and began taking Riley's vitals while asking her parents questions. (Dad's own headquarters was in a panic, scrambling to recall memories of things like Riley's blood type and the name of the last pediatrician she had seen.) The encounter was finished with Riley getting a little paper bracelet and the nurse instructing them towards a little exam area for more waiting until a doctor arrived.

"Hello everyone, I'm Doctor Miles." The blond woman in the white coat announced as she pulled the privacy curtain shut around them. She checked her chart. "I see Riley's been having abdominal pain. How long has this been for, Riley?"

"Since this afternoon." She answered. She was a little happier that this doctor was letting her answer for herself. Though she was also a little sad she hadn't told her parents sooner and caused them to worry.

Dr. Miles put down her chart and motioned for Riley to lie down on an exam table.

"I'm going to feel around your belly, let me know if I touch any sore spots, okay?"

Riley nodded. The doctor put on some gloves, lifted Riley's shirt and began gently pressing on her stomach until she reached an area on the lower right side that made her wince.

"There. That's where it hurts most."

The doctor frowned, then picked up her chart.

"Riley, have you taken anything for the pain? Any aspirin or laxatives?"

She thought a moment, then suddenly remembered,

"I took some Pink Stuff."

Fear removed his hand from the console button. The green hued memory dropped back down into the tube from whence it came. He was glad he had remembered that information. Surely it would help the doctor somehow. He liked Dr. Miles, she was nice and had a soothing voice. Certainly she'd give Riley a good prognosis, prescribe some extra-strength medicine, and they'd be sent home safe and sound.

"Reviewing the symptoms, I'm afraid there's a good chance that Riley has appendicitis." Dr. Miles stated.

Everyone gasped. Fear found himself fighting off a fainting spell, leaning against the mop handle for support.

"Now, we could do some blood work to confirm the presence of an infection." The doctor continued, "But I would recommend going straight to surgery."

…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Fear? Fear, are you okay?"

He opened his eyes and realized he was somewhere dark and wet. Then a light blinded him as the source of darkness was lifted off his head.

"What happened?" he asked, squinting up at Sadness who was holding the upturned mop bucket as Joy helped him to his feet.

"You fainted…" Sadness said. "Actually, first you screamed, then you ran around in a circle, then you slipped on the wet spot on the floor, fell head first into the bucket… and _then_ you fainted."

He grinned awkwardly, the irony that he had slipped on his own attempt to _prevent_ someone from slipping not lost on him. "Oh, yeah. Now I remember. I also remember…" he chuckled nervously, "and I'm sure I must have misheard this…but did anyone else hear the doctor mention s…surgery?"

He looked to Joy hopefully, but her expression was as dour as Sadness's.

"I'm sorry Fear, but Riley does need surgery."

[To be continued]


	3. Chapter 3

**[Author note: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, really happy to get feedback, keep it coming.]**

Joy saw Fear begin to curl in on himself, trembling and letting out little whimpers that became shorter and quicker, signaling her that he was on the verge of hyperventilating. She took his hands softly, redirecting his attention back onto her.

"Hey, it'll be okay. We've got doctors everywhere, and I bet they're all great at their jobs, I mean they must be they all have PHDs and years of medical school and _everything_! And we've got them looking out for us. And Mom and Dad are looking out for us too."

"And after a night like this, they'll probably be hovering around us until we graduate college. If we're lucky." Disgust scoffed in annoyance, leaning on the console.

He lowered his head feeling a bit shameful. He understood why she was frustrated; 'Project Independence' had been her idea and here he had practically unraveled it single handedly. He hated seeing her and Joy upset by the results of his actions and he was pretty sure Anger and Sadness weren't happy with the current situation either.

"Hey, Mom and Dad are done talking to the Doc." Anger announced. Everyone turned their attention back to the monitor.

"Riley, we talked to Dr. Miles and she explained everything that's going to happen." Mom started, taking a seat next to the hospital bed. "They're going to take you upstairs and get you ready for the surgeon. They'll give you something that will put you to sleep so you won't even feel anything."

"She told us this is routine surgery so they do it all the time. There's nothing for you to be afraid of." Dad finished.

Disgust rolled her eyes. "The doctor could have told us all that herself. See? It's happening already. Welcome to Baby Town." She threw her arms up in a huff.

"Oh, it's not all that bad." Joy waved her off. She turned to face the group. "Okay team, how can we best help Riley handle this?"

"We could use a hug." Sadness suggested.

"We could use an appendix that doesn't wanna crap out on us." Anger mused. "What's an appendix do anyway? I'll tell you what, NOTHING! What's the point of having an organ that sits there and doesn't do anything until it decides to up and get infected!?"

Joy paused before answering. "Alright. I like your idea, Sadness. Anger, that wasn't really a suggestion, but thank you for sharing." She smiled.

"Always a pleasure."

She noticed Fear standing a distance from the group, fiddling with his fingers quietly.

"Fear? Do you have something to add?" She asked.

"Huh?" Her voiced snapped him out of the thought he was having. "Oh… Nothing." He answered hesitantly.

Her smile fell away. "Really?" She was confused. "Nothing? Usually I can count on you to have a mile long list of things that could happen."

He flashed an uncertain smile while avoiding as much eye contact as possible. "Well, you said Riley needs this surgery, right? So why get her scared about it then? I mean, Mom and Dad even said there was nothing to be afraid of, and if Mom and Dad say so, why shouldn't we believe them?" He put his hands on his hips, attempting to look confident.

While Joy was surprised that Fear wasn't offering his usual prophesies of doom, she allowed herself to smile again, proud he was being brave for Riley's sake. She looked around the room, Anger and Disgust appeared to share her sentiment, eager to show the world that Riley wasn't going to flitch and give her parents anymore excuses to doubt her maturity. Sadness was frowning, but she's Sadness, so that was expected.

"Well then, looks like we're Team Brave!" She shouted and punched the air for emphasis.

Doctor Miles came in just then, a nurse by her side. "Alright Riley, We're here to take you to surgery prep. Are you ready?"

Eyes briefly glanced at Fear for a reaction. While his eyes were bulging with alarm, he turned them from the screen and his co-workers, instead noticing the mop and bucket still laying near the spill he had caused during his hysterics.

"Heh, wouldya look at this mess, clumsy me. Better clean this up. You guys go on without me. Team Brave, right?" He picked up the mop with a not-so-convincing grin, but the others shrugged it off and manned the console with Riley's response.

Riley nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready." She said with cool-headed calm.

"That's our little trooper." Said Dad, giver her shoulder a tight squeeze before she was settled into a wheel chair and escorted out into the hall.

"Could have done without the 'little trooper' remark, but I think we still got our message across." Disgust grinned smugly.

"Good-bye Baby Town. Smell ya later!" Anger cheered.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There was a quick ride in the elevator and Riley was wheeled into a new area where the nurse, a large, bearded man with a friendly smile, remained while Doctor Miles left to let the surgeon know his patient was on the Operating Floor.

"Alright, Kiddo." Said the nurse. "Just a few little things before we can go to the O.R."

He handed Riley a green paper gown and what looked like a shower cap and directed her to a little room were she could change in private.

"We don't seriously have to wear _that_ do we?" Disgust cringed. "People are going to see our undies."

"Our underwear is clean, right?" Fear asked, "'Cause I remember hearing something somewhere about it being important to be wearing clean underpants when going to surgery."

"If I say, got hit by a truck, I can assure you the last thing any surgeons or _anyone_ for that matter would care about is whether or not my underpants were clean." Anger scoffed. "In fact, if I got hit by a truck, I could assure you they definitely would _not_ be."

With that matter closed, Riley was soon in the gown, trying to keep it closed in the back while returning to the waiting nurse.

"All in uniform? Good! Now I'll be giving you some antibiotics." He said, pulling up a metal tray lined with various little tools. He cleaned Riley's arm with a disinfectant wipe and selected a syringe.

Fear flinched. "Gah! Needle!" He rushed to the console out of instinct, but when he caught the eyes of his fellow emotions looking at him, he stopped himself short of hitting any buttons. Instead opting to fold his arms and act like there wasn't a sharp object about to puncture Riley's flesh. "I mean, uh, Antibiotics! That's a good thing! Yep, getting no infections today." Disgust rolled her eyes at him. Anger gave a little smirk. Sadness pouted. Joy frowned and laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, everything okay?" She asked.

"Me? He forced a laugh. "I'm fine, just fine." He slinked away and continued mopping, praying silently to himself that he could keep distracted until this whole thing was over with.

Disgust sneered as the nurse poked the needle into Riley's arm. "Ugh, I do not want to see any blood."

Riley turned her eyes away as the shot was administered.

"You're a real champ." The nurse praised.

"That's our brave girl." Mom agreed.

Dr. Miles returned then with another doctor, an older gentleman.

"Mr. and Mrs. Andersen, this is Dr. Fisher, the surgeon who will be operating on Riley tonight.

Dad shook his hand, Mom greeted him warmly and both thanked him for being available to treat their daughter.

"They're almost done setting up the Operating room." He told them all. Then he turned to Riley. "Then we'll be in and out lickey-split. How's that sound Riley?"

"Sounds great." She smiled.

"I like this doctor." Joy grinned. The others nodded in agreement, except for Fear who was examining the man on the view screen. He abandoned the mop and zipped around his colleges with questioning.

"Do you think he's qualified enough? Did anyone ask how long he's been doing surgery? Does he look like he has steady hands?" He was now hovering over Anger and Disgust, fixating on the surgeon and not on their annoyed expressions.

"Speaking of hands," Anger growled "Yours are in violation of my personal space!"

Fear looked down and only then realized he had grasped Anger's flat head with one hand to keep himself from touching the console. His other hand was gripping onto Disgust's shoulder.

"You're hurting me." She winced, attempting to pry him off. "Plus you're wrinkling my clothes."

He quickly removed his shaky hands and replaced them on the mop handle. Joy sighed. Poor Fear. She could tell how afraid he was for Riley. Hesitantly she decided to offer, "You know Fear, you can come to the console if you want to make Riley feel a little bit scared." She gave Anger and Disgust a defiant glower when they glared at her, then turned back to him with an inviting smile. "We can make sure you don't go overboard or anything."

Oh, the offer was tempting. The urge to drive had been steadily building since the word 'surgery' had become an inevitability. His fingers played on the wooden tool in his hands, he sucked his lower lip and he seemed to give the offer some consideration. Then he shook his head.

"No thank you Joy." He said with some determination. "What Riley needs right now is to be brave. So, she doesn't need me." He turned away from them, partially to drive home his point but mostly because he knew if he gave the console a second glance he was sure he'd change his mind and come off looking like a hypocrite.

"Are you sure?" Asked Sadness.

"I'm positive." He answered, still not turning around. "I'm much more useful to Riley by keeping Headquarters clean, then by making her worried." He glanced around the room. "Besides, when was the last time anyone mopped these floors? I bet they're filthy." And with that he was mopping again.

"Can't argue with that." Disgust shrugged.

"For once, the Beanpole is being rational." Anger agreed.

"If you really think so…" Sadness lowered her gaze to the floor, crestfallen.

Joy sighed, "Well, okay."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dr. Fisher left with Dr. Miles to get scrubbed up. Only a little more waiting. Mom and Dad were signing some paperwork and the Nurse was helping Riley onto a stretcher that they'd use to wheel her into the operating room. Riley felt like she was handling this all well. She was keeping optimistic, though she was still upset she had caused her parents stress, and the hospital smell wasn't so bad now that she had gotten used to it. The only thing that was bothering her right now was the wait. She just wanted this over and done with. She really wasn't sure why she felt so impatient. The nurse had given her something to dull her pain, her parents were nearby and the doctors all talked like they knew what they were doing so she trusted them when they said everything would be fine. So why this feeling in the back of her head that made her want to wake up in her bed at home and this all have been a dream?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"It's just like a nightmare…" Fear told himself softly as he pulled the mop over the floor. "All you have to do is wait it out and it'll be over before you know it."

But this wasn't a nightmare, this was really happening to Riley. In a few moments she'd be unconscious on an operating table with doctors probing her insides, cutting things out with sharp metal tools. The image of Riley's blood and guts being taken out of her flashed through his mind and made his knees weak. He tried to focus on something else.

Out the windows, the Islands of Personality were standing strong and beautiful. Family Island in particular always made him happy. But now it gave him a sudden longing for Mom and Dad and he regretted not backing up Sadness's suggestion of getting a hug. It sure would help settle his nerves right now.

"Come on! How long does it take to clean an operating room?" Anger banged on the console.

"Settle down Anger, it won't be much longer." Joy said calmingly. He only grunted in response, leaning on the control panel. Joy did her best to try and balance out Anger's frustration with her hopefulness but there was a tension in the room that was feeling thicker by every passing moment. Anger's impatience was the dominate contributor to this, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of something else. The uncertainty of this oncoming, unfamiliar experience had left the emotions unsure of what to do in this empty space of time between now and Riley's operation.

Something on the screen caught Disgust's attention, snapping her out of her ennui. "Is Riley biting her nails?!" She gasped and jumped into action, hitting buttons frantically to stop the behavior, slapping Joy's hands off the controls. "Don't encourage her!"

"Hey, it's not me." Joy snapped defensively. "She started doing it on her own." She felt someone tap her side and saw Sadness silently looking up at her and pointing towards the back of the room were Fear was. He was gazing out the windows, absentmindedly chewing his fingertips. How strange it was that he and Riley were performing the same action. But he wasn't anywhere near the console, so it must be a coincidence, right?

Before she could address the matter in any way however, the nurse returned with a rolling cart topped with a machine that he explained was the heart monitor Riley would be hooked up to for the surgery. He wrapped a fabric cuff around her arm that tightened with the push of a button, then he took a small clamp and set it onto one of her fingers. The monitor beeped with indicators for her pulse and blood pressure.

"Alright champ," he said "we're taking one last ride and we'll be at the O.R. Ready to go?"

Riley nodded, looking relieved.

"Finally" Anger huffed.

Fear tried to continue focusing on his chore and not on the events unfolding on the view screen. But instead of being calmed by the wait being over like he had hoped, the idea of the operation and all that could go wrong hit his brain like a tsunami. What if the surgeon nicked an artery and they couldn't stop the bleeding? What if something went wrong with the anesthetic and Riley never woke up? What if an Earthquake hit right in the middle of the operation? His breathing became fast and ragged as his insides tightened painfully.

Out in Riley's world, her heart monitor began beeping faster, catching the attention of the nurse and her parents.

"What's that? Is something wrong?" Dad asked when the nurse paused to investigate.

"Just a B.P. spike." Explained the nurse calmly. "Doesn't look like anything abnormal." He looked to Riley compassionately. "Hey sweetie, let's try taking some deep breaths to calm those jitters, okay?"

Riley raised an eyebrow. Jitters? She wasn't scared… at least she didn't think she was. But she complied anyway, taking slow breaths in and releasing them in long puffs. She did this a few times over, but when the monitor didn't change, the nurse decided to report this to Dr. Miles.

Joy was concerned. It seemed like just as they were reaching the end of Riley's troubles, something was upsetting the balance and throwing a wrench into things.

Anger snarled and banged on the console again. "So what now? Are we going to surgery or not!?"

"Come on everyone, we need to relax." Joy insisted, trying to keep calm herself. "Us getting worked up is only getting Riley worked up."

Disgust huffed indignantly. "I'm not getting worked up. Tell it to 'pants-on-fire' over here trying to rush things." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Anger.

He steamed at her accusation. "I'm just trying to help things along. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't made Riley blow up once since we got to this stinking place. So I'm not the one loosing their cool."

She rolled her eyes. "Then why can I hear you wheezing like crazy?"

He gnashed his teeth, leaning in threateningly towards her. "That ain't me!"

They paused. And with their silence the heavy sound of rapid breathing still filled the air. It wasn't either of them. Looking over, they saw it wasn't Joy or Sadness either.

Joy was suddenly very concerned for the team member not present at the console.

"Where's Fear?"

 **[To Be Continued]**


	4. Chapter 4

**[Author's note: Again thanks for the reviews. Also I own none of these Disney/Pixar copyrighted characters]**

Sadness had already found him. She was staring forlornly towards the back of Headquarters by the windows where Fear was still standing. His body was trembling like he was having his own personal Earthquake. As Joy timidly approached, she could hear his whimpering between sharp, pained inhales through gritted teeth. He was hyperventilating, staring ahead of him at nothing in particular, seemingly focusing all his energy into holding himself together.

"Fear?" She asked, lightly tapping his shoulder. He jumped at her touch, arms flailing, along with the mop that was gripped so tightly in his hands.

"EVERYTHING'S FINE I'M MOPPING!"

He didn't know how much he had wanted to, _needed_ to scream until it had exploded from his lungs disguised under his babbling. Now that it had been released, he was lucid enough to recognize Joy standing next to him.

"Joy? Um, hi?" He let his eyes drift away from her face, but she had already seen the embarrassment and uncertainty in them. "What brings you over here?"

"Um, not that I want to interrupt your…work…" She began, eyeing his haphazard attempt to clean. She could see from the wet trail he had left behind that the mopping had started orderly enough, but had quickly devolved into frantic zig-zags and winding circles as his evident panic had set in. "But I just wanted to bring you up to speed. There's been a _tiny_ delay, the nurse said it was nothing to worry about, but Riley's blood pressure was a little bit higher then the doctors would like it to be." She noticed his eye twitch, but he nodded as if she were talking about the weather. "Dr. Miles is handling the whole thing and we should be back on track in no time." She paused, but he continued staring into the space in front of him. "Are you…okay with this?"

He glanced at her again, but only briefly. "Okay? Why wouldn't I be okay?" He answered quickly. She could tell he was clenching his jaw into a false smile. He started absentmindedly pushing the mop around again, almost running it over her feet. "I'll still be here, tidying up. Yup. Just let me know when it's all over." He turned with a look of desperation in his eyes. "You…you said that would be _soon,_ right?"

This crack in his façade was all it took for her to know how much panic he was holding in. The stricken look he was giving her in those wide, anticipatory eyes. All his worry he was keeping bottled up, just so he could keep on a brave face for everyone else. But it wasn't doing him any good, nor did it seem to be helping Riley either, as they had planned; with her fidgeting with her hands and now her quickened pulse. Joy hadn't wanted to believe it, but she also couldn't argue against the assumption that somehow Fear was having an affect on their girl despite his efforts to keep as far away from the console as possible.

"Soon, yeah. It'll be over soon. Faster then you can say 'tiddly-winks'." She assured him, hiding her concern behind a smile. She hoped her words would settle him down but when she placed her hands on his shoulders she could feel how tense he was.

"Oh, good, good." Another nervous chuckle before busying his mouth with his fingers again.

And Riley did the same.

"Ug, she's doing it again!" Disgust prodded the console, trying her best to discourage the bad habit. "Now our nails are going to be uneven and gross."

Frowning at hearing this, Joy gently took Fear's hand from his mouth to stop the gnawing.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked, letting the concern flow out this time.

He jerked his hand from hers. "Yes! I told you. Why do you keep asking me!?" From his voice it was clear he was becoming agitated.

"Well, because I think you might be…making Riley bite her nails?" She told him softly, as if her words were solid and whispering would lessen the blow. Her smile turned awkward, then became an honest frown when he narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"What? No. I…I'm not…I _can't_ be." He glared with disbelief. The very idea was outrageous, but a doubt began wriggling its way into his brain.

Partially to test her theory, but mostly because he couldn't stop the urge to do so anyway, once again his digits found their way to his teeth. Only this time, he paid attention to the view screen. Riley quietly nipped at her fingernails while Disgust was reaching the end of her patience.

"I give up." Disgust sighed with aggravation. "You want to ruin your nails, fine. See if I care." She dropped her arms to her sides with an exaggerated groan.

Fear yelped and tucked both hands into his armpits. And Riley stopped her chewing, just as mysteriously as she had started. Much to Disgust's confusion and Anger's surprise.

"Hmm, guess there's something to that reverse psychology after all." The red brick mused.

Fear quivered with building dread. "No, no…how?" He had made Riley do that? Without the console? His breathing accelerated. His legs felt weak. "This shouldn't happen. Why is this happening?" He murmured with quiet shock. His knees hit the ground and he curled into a ball so tight Joy briefly wondered if he'd fit on the racks with the memory orbs. She watched with apprehension but was helpless, unknowing of anything that could ease the anxiety overwhelming him. If it were possible to become sick with worry, Fear looked like he was about to become very ill indeed.

He wanted desperately for it all not to be true. That Riley was not in the hospital about to be operated on. That she didn't have a life threatening minor organ infection that required her to be in a hospital to begin with. And especially not feeling his influence involuntarily. He covered his head with his hands, wishing with all his might he could will away this unwanted reality. But he couldn't escape it, just as he couldn't escape the pounding of his rapid pulse echoing through his body.

Riley's heightened blood pressure, he remembered… _he_ was causing it. He felt lightheaded, his insides twisting with guilt; he wasn't supposed to be doing things that could hurt her. His job was to _protect_ her.

He felt a weight gather upon him and he wondered if he was about to be crushed under the heaviness of his stress, but he then felt a pair of arms wrapping around him. He flinched a little from the sudden stimuli but then accepted the reassuring embrace as a voice softly whispered to him, "Just breathe."

Joy hadn't noticed that Sadness had been standing right next to them the entire time until the bespectacled emotion had quietly sidled up to Fear and leaned her whole body onto his, hugging him gently.

He followed her advice and took as deep a breath as his wracked nerves would allow. Sadness took a breath along side his and continued to breathe in her usual slow, even sighs until his inhales and exhales slowed to match hers. As he began to relax, his hands slid away from grasping the sides of his head and fumbled to grab hold of her small, chubby ones.

"Are you feeling any better?" She asked. He nodded. "This whole night's been pretty scary, huh?"

He frowned, "Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He paused. Then he shook his head.

"There's nothing to talk about. Yes. I'm scared. Yes. This whole night has been terrifying. But that's why Riley needs to be brave."

Joy bit her lip, feeling a hint of shame. Pushing the 'brave' agenda didn't feel right anymore. "Fear, if you really think that Riley needs to feel afraid, you should…"

"You don't get it!" He yelled, interrupting her. He pushed Sadness off and stood again. "I can't help her! What would making her afraid do? I can't scare her away from an infected appendix, Joy!"

He glared at his teammates. He sounded frantic, and the uncertainty playing on his face let them all know his previous panic attack was returning full force. He squeezed his hands together over his chest, making him very much aware of how fast his pulse was racing. Was Riley's heart racing too? He didn't want to know. He didn't want any part of this anymore. He'd welcome fainting, but right now something was keeping him alert with an overcaffeinated feeling. He was sweating, eyeing the group like a cornered animal. Joy took a step forward, hoping another hug may calm him again, but he drew away from her and her outstretched arms.

While he was distracted however, Sadness had drifted up close, eying the back of his head with a curious, yet far away look. Slowly she reached up and delicately traced a finger over the length of his axon. The hair-like appendage had been stiffly kinked since he had started ranting, but at her gentle touch it relaxed and drooped behind his head into loose spiral.

Fear shuttered, a chill running down his spine. It was like being splashed with cold water and it momentarily shifted his focus away from his inner turmoil and onto the faces looking at him. They all looked so worried about him, especially Joy who had been reaching out to him all night. He felt ashamed for causing them concern. He closed his eyes so as not to look at them, but when he opened them again, tears began dribbling out.

"I…I'm so confused right now…What should I do?"

It took a few seconds for anyone to reply. Shock had taken them at seeing that Sadness not only could use her special touch on him, but also that she had been bold enough to touch his axon after years of knowing how sensitive it was. It had always bothered him when anyone or anything pulled on or brushed up against it. And _nobody_ dared touch it after the incident when Riley was in kindergarten and he and Anger had gotten into an argument over whether or not she should confront a bully who had taken her toy during playtime. Anger had pulled the axon so hard that Fear had let out a sound too disturbing for them to call a scream, and lost consciousness, landing on the floor in a twitching heap while frothing at the mouth. Everyone had abandoned the console to make sure he was okay. Even Sadness, who had been given a rare-at-the-time opportunity to make Riley cry over her lost toy, instead spent the entire time he was out cold sobbing over his body.

Joy approached first. He looked to her hopefully, but she wasn't smiling.

"I'm sorry. That isn't my decision to make." She said. He frowned.

"I…I think it's Riley's." Sadness interjected meekly.

They both turned to her.

"What do you mean, Sadness?" Joy asked.

Sadness fiddled with her sleeves. "This is just a theory…I may be wrong…but I've noticed that sometimes, Riley has ways of letting us know when she needs us to do things a certain way. Like when the console acts up for one of us and she doesn't act like we wanted her to, or when we try to give her an idea but she doesn't take to it…" She trailed off for a moment before continuing, this time a little quieter, "Or when I see a memory that I just know needs to be made sad… Stuff like that."

Now that she thought of it, it made sense, Joy agreed. She had noticed all these things but never had given them a second thought before. Was it all Riley, somehow? On some subconscious level was she reaching out to them, dictating how she choose to feel? Ultimately, she _was_ the boss, and if they as emotions were a guiding force for her, perhaps she was also capable of guiding them.

"Riley wants _me_ to drive?" Fear asked, unconvinced.

"Do you feel like you need to?" Sadness inquired, her large eyes looking up at him imploringly.

He hesitated, then sighed. He couldn't lie about it anymore. Not to them, or to himself. "Yes, I do. But how will that help her?"

Sadness took a moment to think, pondering his anxious expressions. "If this is what Riley wants, then you should trust her." She held out her hand and took his, leading him to the console. He whimpered and backpedaled a few steps.

"What if I make things worse?"

She paused. "I suppose that could happen. But things are kinda bad now too, right? And when things go bad, isn't it your job to be there for her anyway?"

He raised an eyebrow. She was right. Anytime Riley was in some kind of trouble he had always been there to sound the alarm. It had always been automatic, instinctual, and his instincts had been _screaming_ at him all night to take control. To make her worry, to ask the doctor more questions, to dissolve the doubts sitting heavy in his chest. He looked to Sadness; her eyes reflected pure empathy at him. She understood exactly what he was feeling right now. When Riley needed to be sad, she knew it instantly, and he had seen how she could not resist the pull to act on her own instincts. Trying to ignore his own had only led to unlocking some unseen bypass that channeled his nervous behavior directly to Riley, perhaps as a means to relieve some of that building pressure. A pressure he wouldn't be feeling if everything was fine.

He thought back to earlier that evening, when that same unknown force had woken him with the certainty that Riley's life was in danger. Just because no danger was obvious now, it didn't mean this feeling wasn't any less valid.

"Alright, I'll do it." He straightened his posture, resolve in his voice, and he approached the console.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The wheeled bed came to a stop at a pair of large doors with tiny glowing windows. Riley stared up at them numbly.

"Okay Monkey, here you go." Said Dad encouragingly.

"Dad and I will be waiting for you when you get out." Mom added.

The nurse began to push the bed through the threshold. The doors opened, revealing the bright, ominous operating room beyond. Riley could make out the silhouettes of the doctors within, clad in their sterile scrubs, masks and caps rendering them faceless. Everything inside appeared cold and unfriendly. Suddenly it was as if the room were a monster about to swallow her up. The muted buzz of anxiety that had been floating in the back of her mind all night was now at the front lines making her undeniably aware this was a point of no return. Any final words, any last wishes, they had to be said _now._

"Wait!" She cried out. The nurse stopped. Her parents rushed to her side.

"Riley, what is it?" Asked Mom.

The girl trembled. "I don't want to go in there…I'm scared."

 _I'm Scared._

The words were almost magical as the tension dissolved from Fear's body. He exhaled a long sigh of relief, feeling like a balloon that had been safely deflated before it could pop. He pressed another set of buttons, allowing Riley to continue.

"I know I need the operation, but what if something goes wrong?"

Dad took her hand, his face sympathetic and thoughtful.

"We'd be lying if we said we weren't worried too. But the doctors are going to take great care of you. We promise."

"They wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't." Mom assured, running her hand down Riley's back. They both gave her a hug, nice and tight.

To his side, Fear saw Joy take her place at the console and push up a fader. A gold and purple memory rolled onto the rack, clinking next to the solid purple one already sitting there.

"Someone's letting out their pre-op jitters, I see." Dr. Miles said, coming over. She lowered her surgical mask so Riley could see her gentle, smiling face. "It's okay to be scared, but I'll have you know, no doctor in this hospital has lost an appendectomy patient before, and I'm not about to let you be the first. We're going to do everything we can to make sure you get through this safe and sound."

Riley liked the sound of that.

Fear _really_ liked the sound of that. He liked the reassurance in Dr. Miles's voice. Her sincerity told him she wasn't going to let anyone carve Riley up like a hunk of meat, which was one of the many distressing scenarios that had been running rampant through his mind all night.

"Are you happy now?" Disgust asked with a roll of her eyes. "Mom and Dad have been saying we had nothing to worry about all night. Nothing's any different except now everyone knows the Riley's afraid of being under the knife."

Fear frowned, a bit of shame returning. Luckily Joy came to his defense.

"But look, Riley's not afraid anymore." She pointed to the screen. Before them they saw that the heart monitor had slowed back down to a normal resting pace.

"Think you'll be okay now?" Dr. Miles asked.

Joy looked at Fear, as if asking him the same question. He smiled, and she was sure, this time he wasn't faking it. She took to the controls and her yellow glow of optimism overtook the console.

"Yeah, I think so." She smiled confidently and looked up to her parents. "See you when I wake up." The adults all smiled and the nurse resumed pushing the girl into the Operating Room.

"There she goes, out little trooper." Joy beamed, ignoring the critical look she was getting from Disgust for quoting Dad from earlier.

"I don't understand, how did Fear driving make Riley _less_ scared?" The green emotion inquired. "It sounds so counter intuitive."

"I, I don't know." He stammered, unable to grasp the concept himself. He turned to Sadness for an answer, but she only asked him,

"Are you feeling better now?"

He paused; he did feel like a horrible burden had been taken off his shoulders. "Actually, yeah. I feel a lot better."

"Oh, good. You looked really stressed out before. I hoped talking about it would help."

"Thanks, I'm glad you got me to talk about it, I was beyond scared back there…" A realization sprouted in his mind. "…And I had to let Riley know, just like she had to let her parents know…I was resisting that because I thought I'd only make things worse, but me keeping away from the console wasn't making Riley brave. Riley was… in denial."

Joy pondered this as well. "So Riley couldn't be brave…until she knew she was scared first."

Sadness nodded, starting at her fingers, "That sounds about right. At least, that's what I think."

Joy smiled and pulled Sadness and Fear into a hug. "Sounds right to me too."

"It makes sense, I guess." Fear smiled shyly, blushing a little.

"Well _I_ don't get it." Grunted Anger. "You have to be scared to be brave. You have to be sad to be happy. And now Riley's telling _us_ how to feel? Nothing in this mind makes sense anymore!"

"Okay Riley," The voice of Dr. Miles cut through over the monitor, catching everyone's attention. "I want you to breathe normally and count backwards from ten."

The emotions watched as a clear mask was placed over Riley's mouth and nose. Joy tapped a button and Fear pulled a lever so their girl would comply with the instructions.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6. 5. 4…3…2…" The screen grew fuzzy, then blinked to black.

 **[To Be Continued]**


	5. Chapter 5

**[Authors note: This chapter gave me the most trouble. I ended up rewriting it** **four** **times. The end result is something shorter then I was expecting, mostly because I ended up cutting out a lot that I realized was slowing the story down. I'm pretty happy with what I was left with and I hope you do too.]**

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

"That's it." Said Joy "She's under. Guess nothing for us to do now but wait until she wakes up."

She expected her cohorts to retreat back to their beds, but found them lingering around Headquarters instead. Sadness settled herself down on the couch. Disgust stood by the console, smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt. Anger leaned against the wall, arms crossed, staring at the blank view screen wordlessly. Fear remained next to her, his eyes darting over the console buttons, distracted by his inner thoughts. She guessed they all felt as she did; they didn't know when Riley would be waking up. Perhaps in an hour, perhaps in the morning, whenever it happened, they wanted to be close at hand for their girl.

Without anything else he could think of to do, Fear wandered to the back of Headquarters. He picked up the mop and pail and reviewed his sloppy attempt at cleaning up. The floor looked like a drunken snail had been set loose upon it and he felt slightly embarrassed he was capable of being so disorderly. He considered finishing the job, but honestly didn't feel up to the task. He instead carried the equipment back to the storage closet and put them away.

"Done with tidying up?" A voice purred from behind him. He turned to see Disgust standing there, eyeing him in a way that made him uncomfortable.

"Uh, y, yeah." He stammered.

"Lovely job you did of that by the way." Anger added with a cheery sarcasm. "What were you doing with that mop exactly? The tango?"

Fear frowned. Why were they ganging up on him like that? Just when he was starting to relax, a new reason for his stress levels to spike reared its head. It was practically the story of his life.

"Look, I'm sorry if what I did wasn't your definition of 'brave'. I did what had to be done, apparently."

But instead of being mad, Disgust flipped her hair indifferently. "Whatever," she dismissed. "Honestly, I'm actually impressed you were able to hold yourself back for as long as you did. We thought you were going to explode or something." A sneer briefly took her face at the thought of the imaginary mess that would have made. She took a breath and prepared herself for what she was going to say next. "Look. You don't have to apologize for making Riley afraid. We were just as scared for her as you were."

"Who's we? I wasn't afraid." Anger crossed his arms grumpily. She shot him an aggressively disbelieving look. "I was _concerned._ " He corrected, his eyes widening at her wordless threat. He stared at the floor now, grumbling mostly to himself. "Stupid hospital and their slow doctors."

Fear smiled. The last thing he was expecting was validation from these two. "So you're not mad?"

"About Riley being scared of surgery?" Disgust shook her head. "We'll get other chances to show Mom and Dad we're a big girl, so no, not mad about that." She suddenly lunged forward, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him in close. "But if you make Riley bite her nails again, I swear you'll be wearing oven mitts for the rest of your life." Her voice was dark and hissing as she delivered her ultimatum.

He gulped and pleaded, "I'm sorry! I don't know how I was doing that. I always thought I needed the console to give Riley anxious behavior. I didn't know it could come from me without it." He shivered, frowning. "And I don't like it, either. What if I make her do something embarrassing? Or something that gets her into trouble?!" He plopped down on the couch next to Sadness, curling up into a ball and rocking himself. "What if I make her…hurt herself?" He stared into his knees despondently. Sadness reached over and rubbed his back.

"You wouldn't do that. You care too much about her to let it get that bad." She said reassuringly "This is just a way you help Riley cope with stress." She let out a wistful sound between a laugh and a contented sigh. "Remember when we were nervous about her starting pre-school? You and Riley had that thumb sucking fixation. Mom and Dad wanted her to stop, but she couldn't kick the habit until we could get you to first."

Fear mused over the memory, fondly staring at his thumb. "Thumb sucking was so soothing." He reminisced with a smile. He then narrowed his eyes at Disgust, who was frowning at him. "You just had to come along and ruin that."

"Hey, I only saved us from becoming a social pariah." She defended.

"I'm pretty sure the point of the story is; Riley's stress is something you don't have to handle alone." Joy interjected. She had been eavesdropping. Nothing else to do since Dream Productions had yet to send up any dreams. "We're a team and we here for one another." She scampered from the console to the couch where she sat, sandwiching Fear between herself and Sadness. "You have a connection to Riley that lets you know when something's wrong. Like tonight, when you knew that she was in trouble. You should be proud of that." He turned his head to her but he didn't look very convinced. "So, you might cause some nervous twitches every once in a while. Just think of them as ways we can let people know Riley needs some extra attention. And you can always turn to us when you're feeling overwhelmed."

"I know I'm more than willing to smack some sense into you if you start making her pull her hair out." Disgust smirked.

"Yeah," Anger chuckled. "And don't you forget, when we get into those 'Fight or Flight' scenarios, 'Fight' is _this_ guy." He pointed to himself, grinning.

Sadness gave Fear the tiniest of smiles. "If you think I can help, I'm here too."

"See, we're all looking out for our girl and we all have our own unique ways to do it." Joy smiled. "I can make her laugh and smile. And Anger can make her stronger when she needs to fight back. Disgust has her sensitivity to Riley's physical needs…"

"Great, my super power is feeling nauseous… Yay me." The green girl frowned flatly.

Joy ignored her and continued, "And Sadness can turn memories sad." She paused, remembering something. "And, I guess, _you_ too."

"Heh, heh, yeah…that was unexpected." He chuckled awkwardly and turned to Sadness with befuddlement. "How did you know that would work on me?"

"I didn't. It was a hunch." She shrugged. "By the way, I'm sorry I touched your axon without permission. I know that bothers you."

"It's okay, really." He gently reached towards the back of his head, reminded of the cold but oddly relaxing sensation it had given him. "I, I'm just thankful you were looking out for me." Another timid smile graced Sadness's face.

The warm and cuddly moment came to an abrupt end when Disgust caught sight of something out the back windows.

"Uh, guys. Better come see this."

"Ooh, it's so…foggy." Joy gasped, both confused and amazed.

Indeed, a thick cloud of fog had engulfed the mind world, flooding through the long-term storage and billowing as far out as to cover the memory dump in a white blanket. Even the Islands of personality were being swallowed by the slowly rising haze.

"Should we be worried about this?" Fear asked, quivering.

"Only you'd be afraid of puffy clouds." Anger snorted.

"Well, forgive me for being concerned about strange and foreboding weather patterns overtaking the mind world."

Said weather began to creep up the bottom of the windows, making Fear yelp.

"Oh, no. It's coming for us!" He retreated from the windows. "Who knows what could be lurking in there. We, we need…we need to…" He trailed off, suddenly feeling very groggy. His vision swam and his body quickly met the ground with a thump.

"Did he seriously just faint because of clouds?" Anger asked, incredulously.

"Oh, don't be hard on him." Joy chided. "He's had a rough night." She carefully picked up her conked out co-worker and carried him over to the couch.

As the windows continued to become obscured, Sadness noticed the haze wasn't content to stay outside. The fog had started to seep into Headquarters through the delivery slot on the access door.

"Oh dear, it's coming in." She pointed.

"It better not make everything all damp and mildewy." Disgust scoffed, backing away from the encroaching cloud.

Anger grabbed a couch pillow and marched past them. "Well, I'm not bothered by some puffy, fluffy stuff." He boasted, trudging through the billowing haze over the floor. "Here's how you stop a leak." He approached the door, aiming to stuff the pillow into the slot, but he only made it a few steps before his eyelids felt heavy. The girls watched him sway, then fall forward, hitting the ground face first, completely unconscious.

"At least he landed on the pillow." Joy shrugged after a long pause.

"What was that?" Disgust asked, shocked. "Can you tell me what just happened?"

"I think that cloud is the anesthetic, you guys." Sadness concluded.

"What? Really?" Disgust backed away further. She considered running up the ramp to escape, but the path to it had already been covered with the fog as it flowed towards them. She bit her lip and tip-toed behind Sadness, cowering from the cloud as if it were a swarm of mice. Sadness on the other hand, barely reacted to it, even as the mist swirled around her feet.

"It isn't dangerous." The blue emotion explained. "It'll just render us unconscious until Riley wakes up." As if to illustrate her point, she let out a yawn and fell onto the floor, snoozing peacefully.

Disgust had retreat far enough back to avoid the same fate, but it had become apparent that she had only bought herself a few moments more before she too was claimed by the artificially induced sleep.

"If that stuffed going to put me to sleep, I am _not_ doing it on the floor." She sashayed over to the couch and pushed Fear's slumbering form over to give her room to lie down comfortably.

Joy followed suit, but took the time to reposition Fear out of the awkwardly arched lump he had been forced into. Laying his head in her lap, Joy smiled at how peaceful he looked. It was rare to see him so calm, even in his sleep, which was usually fitful and sometimes ended with him screaming himself awake. To see him now, with a genuine, relaxed smile, it let her know he was getting some well deserved rest.

The drowsy affect of the anesthetic began to take its hold on her as the fog finished coating the floor of Headquarters. She managed one last glance around the room at her teammates, silently praising them all for a job well done, before drifting off to sleep.

 **[to be continued]**


	6. Chapter 6

He tried to lift his head first, but it felt too heavy. With a bit of a struggle, he managed to open his eyes and blink a few times, trying to shake off the sleepy feeling and focus on his surroundings.

Headquarters appeared as the blur faded from his vision. He deduced that he had fainted again, though the memory as to why was taking its time to return to him, and normally he didn't feel so bleary after coming to.

At least he was comfortable. Somebody had been nice enough to lay him on the couch and had even put a pillow under his head. He rolled onto his back, yawning with a stretch and allowed himself to enjoy this peaceful moment. He noticed Disgust down on the other end of the couch, curled up near his feet. He was surprised to see her dozing there; she usually took care to not sleep in a way that would wrinkle her clothes. His gaze drifted away from her and towards the ceiling, too tired to dwell on it any further. He started nodding off again when he picked up a faint glow on the edge of his vision. That's when he noticed the pretty face sleeping over him.

A rush of adrenaline to his heart and a blush of color to his cheeks was enough to bring him to full alertness. How he had ended up on Joy's lap, he didn't know, but he was far too self-conscious to have the others waking up to catch him like this. Carefully and quietly he rolled himself off Joy's legs, off the couch and onto the floor with a thump.

He lay there a moment to allow his embarrassment to subside. The lights came flickering on, stinging his eyes momentarily. Riley was awake, though with the way the lights were blinking, it was clear she was just as groggy as he had been.

Getting to his feet, he peered through the blurry view screen and wobbled to the console to prompt the girl to look around. It only took him a few seconds to realize she had not woken in her bedroom.

Where were they? Had she been abducted? Had she slept-walked into a stranger's house? His mind racing with worst-case-scenarios, he rushed back to the couch and tried to rouse Joy.

"Joy! Wake up!" He cried. "Riley's awake but I don't know where we are!" He took her shoulders and shook. She let out a little moan but didn't open her eyes. "Joy! Come on, I need you!" He pleaded.

"Mmm…Why yes…I _am_ a natural blue…" She murmured, smiling. She tilted forwards, her head landing against his chest. "Whoa… your heart is beating _really_ fast."

"Yes, it tends to do that when I _panic!_ " He shouted down at her. She opened her eyes lazily, staring up at him without any reaction to his yelling.

"It's like a hummingbird…" she cooed, raising a hand and lightly stroking his long nose. " _You_ look like a hummingbird…"

He frowned at her, but at least she was awake. He hooked his hands under her arms and dragged her to the console. She gave him no resistance, only an elated, "Wheee!"

He leaned her onto the control panel and tilted her head up to look at the view screen. "Look, not Riley's bedroom." He explained.

Joy looked like she was making an attempt to examine the unadorned little room. There was a small window dressed with white curtains, a lamp on a side table, a door leading to somewhere, maybe a closet, and next to the bed Riley was lying in was a comfy looking chair. And in that chair was Mom reading a magazine.

"Hey look, it's Mom." She grinned, turning to Fear. "We've got nothing to worry about, Mom's here. Hi Mom!" She pulled down a lever, relieving Riley of the unease Fear had left her in and got her to do a little wave at her mother.

Fear felt embarrassed. In his panic he hadn't even noticed Mom sitting there. He hung his head low and watched silently as Joy took over driving Riley through a tipsy conversation.

/\

"Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?" Mom asked, putting down her magazine.

"I'm feelin' okey- dokey." Riley's slurred giddily.

Mom smiled, stroking her daughter's head. "I'm glad. I told you those doctors would take good care of you."

\/

"Doctors… Oh! We're still in the hospital!" Fear lifted his head, his memory finally returning. He smiled, taking Joy by the shoulders, only this time to give her a relieved hug. "We made it! We survived the surgery! Oh, thank goodness!"

"Yay!" Joy drunkenly responded, doing a dizzy twirl that almost ended with her falling on the floor if Fear had not caught her. She regained her balanced and pressed a few buttons.

Riley smiled blissfully, "What doctors?" She asked looking around. "This isn't my room."

"Honey, we're in the hospital, remember?" Mom asked her patiently, knowing her daughter wasn't completely lucid yet.

Fear tried to summon the memories from last night but nothing happened when he hit the button.

"Recall's not working." He frowned, watching the tube lower but deposit nothing into the projector. Joy giggled, taking his arm and directing his attention to the windows.

"That's because everyone's still sleeping." She said, pointing to the fog hanging over the Mind World. The clouds had receded away from the Islands of Personality and the Memory Dump, but a good portion was still shrouding the Long-Term shelves. "Sadness said the foggy stuff was the, um, Anastasia."

"Oh, you mean _anesthesia._ " Fear nodded. "Now everything makes sense."

"This is too nice to be a hospital." Riley smiled, Joy's influence holding strong.

"Well, it _is_ a hospital." Mom assured her. "Only the best hospital room for my loopy little monkey."

Right on cue Joy activated a lever that got Riley started making monkey noises with glee. Behind them Goofball Island lit up and bounced with bright energy.

Fear couldn't help but smile a little. Even though he wasn't fond of how the pain medication was making Riley act intoxicated, with Mom watching over her, he didn't have much to worry about. Although he did pull a lever back to lessen her activity a little…just to be safe.

When he looked up he noticed Joy staring at him with a dreamy expression.

"Did I ever tell you you're my favorite noodle?" She asked.

He raised an eyebrow, "Uh, no. I can't say you ever have."

"Well, you are." She smiled. "You're a good noodle." She stepped forward and pulled him into a tight hug, leaning into him in a way that made him blush. Flustered, he wriggled free and tried to gain control of the situation before Joy took it any further past his comfort zone.

"Wait! Let's not do anything we may regret here." He cautioned, trying to keep his composure. "You're still feeling the affects of the anesthetic. You're not in your right mind…"

Her smile suddenly vanished. Her eyes serious, as if he had just insulted her.

"I mean it…" She said. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Her words made him feel uncomfortable, especially now that her eyes had lost their brightness. He could almost mistake them for Sadness's eyes.

"Riley could have _died_ last night." She stared blankly, as if looking into an alternate timeline where the worst had happened. "I promised you I'd keep an eye on the pain meter… If you hadn't woken up…"

Fear now understood where all the extra affection had come from. He took her hand.

"Yes, she could have died…but she _didn't_ …she's okay, Joy. Don't let it bother you."

"You guys have such wonderful ways to help Riley when she's in trouble." She confessed. "All I can do is put a smile on her face."

He was taken aback. It just wasn't natural to see her so downtrodden.

"Hey, what happened to, 'we all have our ways to help Riley'?" He frowned disbelievingly. "That smile is way more than ornamental. It's what lets me know I'm doing my job right. It's what lets me…what lets _Riley_ know that everything is okay. It's what the rest of us are all working for!" He reached out for her, forgetting any potential embarrassment and took her in his arms.

She let out a sniffle. "I've made so many mistakes, like pushing Sadness aside. Now I keep questioning myself if I'm doing my job right."

"So? You can ask for help." He grinned slightly, "You gotta practice what you preach, sister. If Riley's stress isn't _my_ responsibility alone, then her happiness isn't _yours_ alone."

Her smile returned, timidly at first, but she understood how silly she probably sounded to him, after giving him a pep talk over the same exact problem. He was right. She was blessed and cursed just the same as the rest of the team with strengths and weaknesses they were all still learning to balance.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." She resigned, turning her attention to the screen when Mom was making silly faces at Riley, playing peek-a-boo with her magazine. Still high on pain medication, and Goofball Island at full power, the girl giggled like a two-year-old. Joy beamed. "Besides, they do say laughter is the best medicine."

Fear was smiling too, and silently thankful Disgust wasn't awake to criticize.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Now that Joy was fully sobered up, she and Fear got to waking the others. Fear had wisely chosen they save Anger for last; being rudely woken from his slumber made him grumpy, but rudely woken while under the influence of narcotics made him _unpredictable_ , and the purple emotion had stood by with the fire extinguisher while Joy and Sadness cautiously coaxed him awake.

Thankfully the brick-shaped emotion was surprisingly mellow;

"Are we going to the zoo?" He mumbled and Joy brought him to his feet.

"Uh, sure." She answered with a shrug.

"Good. The monkey owes me money."

A plinking sound caught all their attentions. And they turned to see a series of memory orbs coming down the recall tube, landing in the projector one at a time before the next behind it pushed it out to take its place. A glance out the window surmised that the fog had completely lifted from Long Term and the Mind Workers down there had woken to find a large backed-up order for last night's memories on their itineraries that they were now quickly trying to make up time on.

The orbs scattered around Headquarters, making a quickly growing mess. But Riley now finally remembered the events of last night and had reached a level of coherence befitting a mature 12-year-old again, much to Disgust's relief.

"We're still feeling gross from the surgery. I'll drive now." She insisted once she was fully aware of her surroundings, and no longer wanting Riley to sit in bed as the giggling mess Joy had left her in. After all, what if friends dropped by to visit?

Sadness had been the first to notice Dad's absence that morning. Mom explained that he had gone to work, but would try to cut his day short in order to drop by and check in later. The whole group was relieved to hear from Dr. Miles that Riley could go home the next day and could be back to playing hockey by that weekend.

"Sweet, I can't wait to show the girls on the team our new scar." A now clear-headed Anger grinned.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

That afternoon, Riley took a nap and woke to a plate of food left by the nurse for lunch. The turkey and mashed potatoes were alright, but what the hospital called 'dessert' wasn't going to win any accolades from her anytime soon.

"Aw, come on guys." Joy tried to cheer the others. "It's Jello. Look at it wiggle!"

Riley held the spoon up close, giving the gelatinous square a disappointed scowl as it vibrated.

"It's green." Disgust glowered.

"So?" Joy asked.

"So, they could have at least given us cherry. We're a sick child for crying out loud!" Anger growled.

"Nothing good is ever green" Disgust sneered, "except yours truly, of course." She preened with a sigh.

Joy did her best to keep her positivity. After all the pain killers had worn off, Riley was still a little sore from surgery and the other emotions were once again voicing their displeasure in their own unique ways. Disgust and Anger where managing 'cranky' as Riley's dominant mood with a chaser of Sadness lying over her portion of the controls, frowning. Only Fear seemed to be in a neutral state of mind, only occasionally peeking at the pain meter before resuming the clean up of the errant memory orbs that were still on the floor. Joy had noticed how he hadn't panicked or fretted or even frowned since that morning. Just stopping every so often to check up on Riley's well being, hitting a button or two to make sure she didn't move in a way that could pop her stitches, and went back to sending the memories back to Long Term. For the first time in a very long time, he didn't have anything else to do. Riley was in a safe place, her mother watching over her, and she had doctors on call in case anything came up, which was highly unlikely. Riley had nothing to fear, and after last night, that suited Fear just fine.

"Hey, how's my girl doing?" Asked Dad as he slid into the room, a bundle of paperwork and a laptop under one arm, a small paper bag in his other hand.

"Dad's back!" Joy beamed, making Riley's smile.

"Hey, Dad." Riley greeted, allowing him to give her a hug once he put down his office work. "I'm feeling better. Did you get what you needed done at work?"

He eyed his papers sitting on the foot of the bed. "Not all of it. But I'll take a work-from-home day to finish it up." He pat her head. "The only thing I want to focus on now is giving my little trooper this." He handed her the paper bag.

"What is it?" She asked curiously.

"It better not be one of those lame gift shop teddy bears that holds the little heart that has 'get well soon' written on it." Disgust sneered.

Instead of a teddy bear though, Riley removed a cup of vanilla soft serve, topped with hot fudge, rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top.

"Alright! Ice cream!" Joy shouted.

"Good ol' Dad!" Anger cheered. "He knows what we really want."

"Ah, thanks Dad!" Riley grinned, taking the top off and tucking into her treat without hesitation.

Dad smirked pridefully, "I figured you'd need a break from the hospital food." He inspected the tray and the abandoned gelatin and turned up his nose. "Not even cherry, shame."

"Don't eat too fast Riley, or you'll make yourself sick." Mom warned.

Fear only barely pressed the button and she listened, slowing the pace of her gobbling. It reminded him of last night and the connection he had learned of between them. It had been brought up again that morning when Anger had proclaimed it unfair that Fear got 'wifi' while the rest of them needed the console. Sadness tried to explain Fear was special because of his role involving Riley's Sympathetic Nervous system, but her reading from the Mind Manuals only bored the others to find something else to do.

Thinking of it now, he wondered how sensitive it was. How much stress was really needed to trigger it? He was tempted to stand back from the console and will Riley to do something, but quickly decided against it. Nope. No matter how it came about, if it was Riley calling to him, or him influencing her, this was going to be an 'emergency only' thing. Though what sort of emergency could possibly arise that would necessitate him to drive Riley without the console? He wouldn't dare to think about it.

Instead he watched through the monitor as they all enjoyed the taste of ice cream and the company of Mom and Dad. Even Sadness was smiling as Riley discussed weekend plans like going to the mall.

"I could drive you and your friends there." Offered Mom. "Maybe help you pick out a new outfit?"

Riley almost choked on her spoonful of ice cream when Disgust pulled the stop lever. Fear scrambled to make sure the girl safely swallowed her mouthful.

"There is _no_ way Mom is shopping for clothes with us and our friends." Disgust announced.

"But, let's let her down slowly so we don't sound like we're being rude." Joy interjected. The leader signaled to Sadness and Fear to take the controls with her and Disgust to orchestrate a proper response.

"Uh, that's okay Mom. We were gonna take the bus." She sheepishly added "And I can kinda pick out my own outfits."

The emotions all waited with anticipation, wondering if they had made the right call.

Mom didn't look wounded, but she frowned slightly before nodding with a smile.

"I understand, you want some time with just you and your friends."

Everyone in headquarters breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank goodness." said Disgust.

"There we go. See, nothing to worry about." Joy smiled.

"I was certain she'd be devastated." Sadness drooped. "Looks like I was wrong."

"Unless she was being passive aggressive. Did she sound passive aggressive to you?" Fear inquired.

"She was fine. Another point for Project Independence" Joy assured them.

"Wait, we're still doing that?" Anger asked from over his newspaper.

Joy glanced back up at the monitor where Mom could be seen fiddling with her wedding ring, looking a bit listless. She briefly wondered if Mom's Fear was causing the tick, anxious about the limited fun time she had left with her daughter.

The yellow emotion considered this before answering, "Well…yes. But with baby steps."

"Hey, Mom. On Sunday let's go to the park. You, me and Dad." Riley offered.

Mom's expression suddenly lifted, Dad too turned from his perusal of his paperwork to smile at them.

"That sounds like a great idea." She answered.

"I second that." Dad agreed.

A family group hug ensued.

"Not a bad idea Joy." Commended Disgust, glancing at the bulb that had just been planted in the console. "Mom and Dad get their quality time without butting in on our personal life."

"Well, it's kinda like what you said last night. We won't get moments with Mom and Dad like this forever. So, let's enjoy the ones we still have left."

Sadness nodded with as much enthusiasm as she was capable of. Disgust shrugged, but smiled. Anger laid the paper in his lap and watched the screen silently, but with a look of pleasure on his face. Fear folded his hands together, gazing into the monitor with large eyes transfixed, his axon curled into a heart shape. His contented smile told Joy she had defiantly made the right call, and she too took in the moment, the light from Family Island filling the windows behind them.

Riley Andersen's emotions could share her pain, her discomforts, her anxieties, but they could also taste the sweet vanilla of the ice cream still on her tongue, smell Dad's aftershave on his clothes, and feel the warmth of her parents' hug. And these were the moments the six of them lived for.

[The End]

 **[Author's notes: Well, it's all over. It's amazing where a little idea can take you. Started with "What do the emotions do when Riley's sick? Do they feel her symptoms?" to "What if Riley got something life threatening and Fear could pick up on it?" to "Maybe Fear causes nervous behavior like nail biting, but doesn't do it consciously. I highly doubt the console has a button for that." Thanks again for everybody who reviewed. This certainly won't be the last you'll see of me for Inside/Out fiction, my Headquarters is buzzing with ideas, so stay tuned!]**


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